June 20 (Reuters) - A California regulator said on

Thursday it is imposing the maximum penalty possible on General

Motors' ( GM ) Cruise unit for its failure to promptly provide

complete information to the commission about an accident

involving one of its self-driving vehicles last year.

Cruise did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for

comment.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Cruise along with other self-driving vehicle companies like

Alphabet's Waymo and Amazon's ( AMZN ) Zoox have come

under heavy scrutiny from regulators arising out of safety

concerns due to multiple crashes involving their vehicles.

BY THE NUMBERS

Cruise will pay the maximum penalty allowable by the California

Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), totaling $112,500, which

equates to a $7,500 fine for each of the 15 days during which

Cruise withheld information about the incident, the regulator

said.

Cruise will also provide "collision reports" to the CPUC and

the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for

collisions occurring in California.

CONTEXT

The decision from the CPUC comes a few months after Cruise had

raised its offer to resolve a probe by the regulator over its

delay in disclosing details of a pedestrian crash.

On Oct. 2, in San Francisco, a pedestrian was struck by

another car and hit a second time by a Cruise robotaxi.

Cruise's permit to operate in California was suspended and

the NHTSA issued a recall of its vehicles after the incident.

Cruise had resumed operations in the U.S. with a small fleet

of human-driven vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona in April, but

Cruise's authority to provide passenger service in its

autonomous vehicles remains suspended, the CPUC said on

Thursday.